Prepositions are about relationships. They are used to
join a noun or pronoun to other parts of a sentence. Here are a few of them:
in, to, towards, at, by, with, of, for, through, across, on, beside, down,
within.
The ball moved towards the goal
The pass was intended for a teammate
He squeezed through a gap in the defence
You get the idea: noun, verb, preposition, object. Unfortunately, if you're
learning English, there is no easy way master prepositions. They just have
to be learned. And even if you are a Native English speaker, prepositions
can still cause problems. Imagine you're from the UK and you're queuing
somewhere in the USA. The prepositions will be different:
UK: Standing in line
US: Standing on line
The two word comes from the Middle English 'bisiden'.
Old English used it as two words, 'be sídan'. 'Beside' means 'by the
side of', or 'next to':
"The girl stood beside the packet of nuts"
Besides means 'in addition to', 'also', 'moreover':
"I can't accept this. It's too much. Besides,
I can't eat nuts. They would kill me."
"What else will kill you besides nuts?"
Study the following:
The ball went in the net
The ball went into the net
I'm going in to get a new net
The first example uses 'in' in an informal sense. Soccer fans of old used
to sing about the first example (to the tune of 'Glory, glory, hallelujah'):
"Where was the goalie when the ball went
in the net,
Where was the goalie when the ball went in the net,
Where was the goalie when the ball went in the net,
he was standing with his finger up his Ah, ah ... "
into is used when you go from outside somewhere to inside somewhere:
He went into the ball and danced the night away
in to are two separate words. A common format is noun/pronoun, verb,
then 'in', then the infinitive (to get, to play, to cry, etc).
He went in to cry about the ball
You can also 'turn in', 'join in', and 'jump in'. These can followed by 'to':
Turn in to go to sleep
Join in to have a good time
Jump in to get some practice
Prepositions can be tricky little blighters.
